Valencia decides the most even rookie of the decade in MotoGP

In 2021, only three riders made their debut in MotoGP. Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martín and Luca Marini promised an interesting fight for the title of best rookie and it has been like that until the end. All of them have had a Ducati, but only the Spaniard has had the most modern version, so on paper he was the one who had the best at the beginning of the season to win the day.

The Pramac team rider exceeded forecasts from the start. In his second MotoGP grand prix, in Qatar, he took pole and climbed to the podium (third) for the first time. However, at the next appointment, in Portugal, he suffered a chilling crash that caused him to miss four races.

To this day, the man from Madrid is still dragging the consequences of that accident, but not even that was an obstacle for him to explode in the double appointment in Austria. He won his first MotoGP race and was on the podium in the other. Since then, Martín has been a regular in the forward positions, but has found himself with a tough rival for the title of best rookie : Bastianini .

The Moto2 world champion has had the oldest bike on the grid –a Desmosedici from 2019–, but he has known how to squeeze it like no one else. In the two races at Misano he finished on the podium (third) and thanks to his regularity throughout the year he beat Martín by three points in the standings.

The third rookie, Marini , has not had such an outstanding debut and is trailing in the championship with less than half the points of his two rivals.

This is the classification of the best MotoGP rookie in 2021 before the Valencia GP

Pos	Pilot	Points
1st	Enea Bastianini	94	6_/10	5_/11	7_/9	–	2_/14	–	6_/10	–	1_/15	4_/12	–	4_/12	10_/6	16_/3	10_/6	16_/3	7_/9
2nd	George Martin	91	1_/15	16_/3	–	–	–	–	2_/14	4_/12	–	25_/1	16_/3	–	7_/9	–	11_/5	–	9_/7
3rd	Luca Marini	41	–	–	4_/12	1_/15	4_/12	–	4_/12	1_/15	–	2_/14	11_/5	1_/15	–	–	2_/14	7_/9	4_/12

Thus, Bastianini and Martín will play for the best rookie award in Valencia this Sunday, and practically whoever is ahead will be the winner.

The fight between the Spanish and the Italian is the closest in MotoGP since 2011, when Cal Crutchlow and Karel Abraham arrived separated by a point in the last race. The Briton ultimately emerged victorious, in what has been the closest fight since switching to four-stroke engines in 2002.

Martín plays down the importance of this honorary title, since in his opinion he claims to be the moral winner for having missed four races, although he will try to succeed Brad Binder in the record.

However, this peculiar classification already saw how a MotoGP world champion like Joan Mir fell defeated in 2019, when another snatched him away: Fabio Quartararo.

See the best rookies in the MotoGP era

2002 –Daijiro Kato